Peña, a journalist and human rights activist, was assaulted
and tortured in the city of Barrancabermeja, Santander Department, at
around 3 p.m. Two armed men abducted the journalist while she was walking
in downtown Barrancabermeja. Peña, 22, belongs to the youth chapter
of the women rights’ group Organización Femenina Popular, OFP (Women’s
Popular Organization) and hosts the "Cultura por la Vida" (Culture for
Life) segment of "La Mohana" television show, broadcast by the privately
owned Canal Enlace 10 from Barrancabermeja.

According to CPJ sources, the assailants, who identified themselves as
members of the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
(AUC), pointed a gun at Peña and forced her into a car. They threatened
Peña and physically abused her by shaving her hair and burning
her feet with boiling water. The attackers told her to end her involvement
with the television program.

Yolanda Becerra, president of the Women’s Popular Organization, told CPJ
that in her weekly television segment, Peña speaks about young
people who are affected by the Colombian civil war and constantly denounces
human rights violations committed by armed groups. Becerra said the attack
came in reprisal for Peña’s journalistic work. She has been threatened
in the past.

The Barrancabermeja police have launched an investigation into the attack.

Barrancabermeja, a port city in northeastern Colombia, is controlled by
paramilitary forces, which are often accused of flagrant human rights
violations. In October 2003, Janeth Montoya, a reporter for the Barrancabermeja-based
daily Vanguardia Liberal, received death threats after she reported
a story exposing the social problems of a poor neighborhood where armed
groups are active.

FEBRUARY 4, 2004
Posted: February 6, 2004

Oscar Alberto Polanco Herrera, Cable Unión de OccidenteKILLED

Polanco Herrera, a television journalist, was shot dead in the town of
Cartago, Valle del Cauca Department, 125 miles (200 kilometers) southwest
of the capital, Bogotá.

Authorities said that Polanco Herrera, director of the local news program
"CNC Noticias" on Cable Unión de Occidente, was shot three times
by two unidentified men on motorcycles in his office parking lot at 1
p.m. Police Colonel Jairo Salcedo said authorities do not have information
on the gunmen or the possible motives for the killing.

Polanco, 37, broadcast a daily, hour-long local news program. According
to Polanco’s friend and colleague Luis Ángel Murcia, a month-and-a-half
ago, Polanco changed the format of his show and began using it as a forum
to irreverently criticize local officials.

Murcia told CPJ that despite the new format, Polanco’s program maintained
a close relationship with the mayor’s office, and that Polanco himself
was a personal friend to many local politicians.

"Cartago is an intolerant city with a long history of drug-trafficking
and hired killers." Murcia told CPJ. "Currently this has reduced significantly,
but the intolerance makes it easy to create enemies, and most problems
are resolved with bullets."

Polanco was not known to have received any death threats before his death,
Murcia said.

Valle del Cauca department Governor Angelino Garzón condemned Polanco’s
murder. An award of 5 million pesos (US$1,800) is being offered for any
information leading to the capture of Polanco’s killers.

FEBRUARY 9. 2004Posted: March 5, 2004

Garibaldi López, Radio Calor Estéreo
THREATENED

Garibaldi López, who produces and hosts two news programs-"Controversia"and
"Actualidad en Estéreo"-on Radio Calor Estéreo, in the city
of Barrancabermeja, received various threatening phone calls.

According to CPJ sources, on February 9, the caller, who identified himself
as a member of the paramilitary group the United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia (AUC), told Lopez's son that his father was a problem. According
to López, the caller said: "The first was José Emeterio
Rivas, the second will be Garibaldi López and the third will be
Diego Waldrón." Rivas was a journalist killed in April 2003 and
Waldrón is López's colleague at Radio Calor Estéreo.

López covers a variety of issues, including human rights abuses
by the paramilitaries. He told CPJ that one of his best friends received
a call, in which the caller said that the AUC had López on a list
of people they intend to kill.

Barrancabermeja, a port city in northeastern Colombia, is controlled by
paramilitary forces, which are often accused of flagrant human rights
violations. At the end of January, paramilitary forces abducted journalist
and human rights activist Inés Peña, who hosts a local TV
talk show. The men tortured Peña and threatened her with future
reprisals.

FEBRUARY 14, 2004Posted: March 3, 2004

Diego Waldrón Guerrero, Siete Días and Radio Calor
EstéreoTHREATENED

Waldrón, editor of the weekly Siete Días and host
of the daily news program "Noticias en Caliente" on Calor Estéreo
radio station in the town of Barrancabermeja in northern Colombia, was
threatened the day after he criticized on air and in his weekly newspaper
the credentials of a person appointed by the local mayor to run a municipal
organization.

Waldrón, 37, told CPJ that a bodyguard with city hall connections
visited his house and warned him to stop criticizing local officials or
face the consequences.

Waldrón also said that on January 26 he received a death threat
from a relative of the president of Barrancabermeja's Chamber of Commerce.
According to Waldrón, the relative threatened him and tried to
attack him with an iron bar as the journalist was entering Radio Calor
Estéreo's offices. The incident occurred after Waldrón reported
on air and in Siete Días about a case of embezzlement at
the chamber of commerce.

Police officers detained the attacker two days later when they found him
waiting outside Waldrón's home. According to the local press, the
officers freed him because he was unarmed.

According to several sources, Waldrón has asked for police protection,
but has not yet received a response.

APRIL 22, 2004Posted: April 27, 2004
Jorge Elías Corredor Quintero, "El Pregón del Norte," La
Voz del NorteATTACKEDAccording to local press reports, on April 22, at around 7:30 p.m.,
two men visited Corredor’s home to discuss buying a house the journalist
was selling. Ten minutes later, one of the men returned and, without saying
a word, pulled out a gun.

Corredor threw himself to the ground but a bullet struck his stepdaughter,
Livy Sierra Maldonado, killing her instantly.

The journalist is currently under police custody. Police are offering
a 50 million pesos reward (US$19,000) for information leading to the murderer’s
capture.

Corredor, who hosts the daily program "El Pregón del Norte" for
La Voz del Norte radio station in the city of Cúcuta, Norte de
Santander Department, is known for his sharp criticism of local authorities.
According to several sources familiar with the situation, Corredor, who
has worked as a journalist for 27 years, was fired from the radio station
on April 4, after the Cúcuta Mayor Ramiro Suárez Corzo pressed
the station to end his contract because of Corredor’s criticism against
the local administration. A few days later, Corredor was asked to resume
his work.

León, a cameraman with local television channel Canal 3, was attacked
and threatened while covering a workers' protest in Barrancabermeja, an
oil town in the northwestern department of Santander. Lozano, a reporter
with Caracol Televisión, and Patiño, his cameraman, were harassed while
they were reporting on the protest. Inés, a reporter with the local television
channel Enlace TV, was also attacked.

Members of the Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) trade union, who were protesting
against layoffs and salary cuts, congregated in front of the mayor's office
at around 3:30 p.m. to obtain a permit to march, according to local news
reports. After the mayor's office denied them the permit, claiming it
hadn't been requested at least 48 hours in advance, the police ordered
protesters to disperse. When union members began to leave, some clashed
with police, who beat several protesters. In return, demonstrators threw
stoned at the police.

León told CPJ that he was filming an officer beat a protester when a police
agent in plain clothes came to him, slapped him in the head several times,
and told him to stop recording. When León answered that he was doing his
job, the agent told him that he should not appear on camera because he
was undercover. Then the agent insulted León and said, "I know who you
are. When I see you alone on the streets, I'm going to screw you."

León filed a complaint about the attack with the local Ombudsman's Office.
He also said that the Barrancabermeja Journalists' Association had filed
another complaint on his behalf before the Prosecutor General's Office.

Lozano and Patiño followed riot police as they entered a USO office. Masked
police agents first blocked the journalists' path with their shields to
keep them from taping the incident, Lozano told CPJ. When the journalists
managed to get in and record the beating of a union worker, police agents
grabbed Lozano by the neck. Lozano told them that they work for Caracol
Televisión and got loose, but an agent tried to handcuff him. The presence
of other journalists made the police agent give up, according to Lozano.

Inés was hit in the face with an unidentified object while she was covering
the protest. According to Lozano, who was present, Inés suffered several
injuries, including a broken nose septum and a fractured cheekbone. Maritza
Cueto, Enlace TV news director, told CPJ that Inés will be out for several
weeks while recovering from her injuries. CPJ was unable to contact Inés.

AUGUST 1, 2004
Posted: August 9, 2004

Hollman Morris Rincón, Channel One
Luis Galdos, Channel 4HARASSED

The Colombian navy detained Galdos and Morris, reporters working on a
documentary for the British television station Channel 4, and confiscated
their video camera and tapes while they were on a boat in the Putumayo
River, on the Colombia-Ecuador border. The journalists were released and
the material returned to them seven hours later.

Galdos, an Italian journalist with Channel 4, and Morris, a Colombian
native who produces the weekly television show "Contravía" on Channel
One in the capital, Bogotá, were visiting the area to produce a
documentary on border issues. Colombia's illegal armed groups have a strong
presence in the region.

Morris told CPJ that the two had met in Quito, Ecuador's capital, and
traveled to the Colombian border, where they identified themselves as
journalists at three different Colombian military checkpoints.

On August 1, the Colombian navy stopped their boat and ordered the journalists
to board the naval ship "ARC Leticia." The navy first said it was a routine
security measure because of armed combat further along the river, according
to Morris.

When Morris asked the naval officer why they were being held on the ship,
the officer answered, "You are detained." After the officer told Morris
he was following a direct order from Bogotá, Morris called some
friends on a satellite telephone to inform them of their detention. The
officer then ordered the journalists to hand over the phone, video camera,
and footage.

Four hours later, a Colombian military intelligence officer arrived in
a helicopter to return the camera and footage and asked Galdos and Morris
to sign a document verifying that they had not been abused or mistreated
before releasing them.

On August 2, Colombia's Defense Ministry issued a statement saying that
the detention of the journalists was part of a routine inspection. The
ministry also stated that Galdos did not have an official Colombian entry
stamp on his passport. Morris said that during the detention, officers
never mentioned the issue of passports and entry stamps.